Day 157 –
I’m still counting the days, because we’ve still living in the bus. Even if it’s parked in the side yard of our house. Marty is already back at work – his beloved brewery took him right back and loaded him up with hours. It’s weird that we aren’t together 24/7. It’s also weird being home – knowing where the best thai food is, the best bottle shop, the library that actually lends us books, etc. Day 178 – Kids are off on their first day of school. It’s supposed to be magic. For the first time EVA – a bus will pick them up from our home. They will eat lunch at school, and then return on that magical orange bus. This is going to be ok, right? I miss them so much already. It’s been ten minutes. Day 192 – We brought the bus to the shop. We’ve had some concerns…I mean, the bus basically had a heart attack in New Mexico. But, imagine that you’re 40 years old, running up hills, in New Mexico; you might have a heart attack too! Anyway, we’re dropping it off for a while. Day 222 – Just picked the bus up. Yes – it was in the shop for a full month! The estimate for all the work it needs was FOURTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS! No – it didn’t get all the work done that it needed! We had the amazing technician address the things that might kill us, in order, until our budget was spent. The rest will have to wait. Day 248 – We know when we can leave. When we came back, we knew we’d be here until December – maybe May. Now we know that we can* leave in December. If we want to. Well, we do…but it’s not that easy. We came back and enrolled the kids in school. So, if we leave again, we have to pull them out, again. We put off some doctor appointments and whatnot, so now we have to catch up. We still haven’t sold our house….so let’s do that. It’s bewildering how quickly we find ourselves entangled in commitments. We ran – long and hard and fast- from this life we had built, but then came right back to it. And we’re in danger of getting stuck again.
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New article available on Wand'rly magazine: Why we chose a bus (opens in a new window)
Day 120- 150 We left the Hopi Nation and traveled to the Four Corners. The Navajo Nation is huge – we traveled through it for hours – amazed by the mesas, hoodoos and other rock structures. We began to notice these small round buildings. Hogans are traditional Navajo homes. They are built with the door facing east to accept the rising sun and good blessings for the day. Many Dine’ people who still practice the traditional religion have hogans, even if they live in modern homes now. As we were leaving the Four Corners National Monument, we spotted a Prevost bus conversion. This is the closest thing we’ve ever see to our home – so we followed it! Into Colorado! It turned into some casino (no thanks) and we kept driving, which is how we found the groovy town of Cortez and Mesa Verde National Monument. We adored the Four Corners area as we got to spend a different day in each state…Colorado yesterday, Utah today, maybe New Mexico tomorrow? It was wonderful! After Four Corners, we moved into Utah proper, a beautiful town called Blanding, which we adored. We had a difficult time finding a parking spot there – probably the most challenging of the entire trip – but ended up in a quiet campground. It was in this campground, in Utah, some 3000+ miles from home, that our princess learned to ride a two-wheeled bike! Natural Bridges was THE MOST SPECTACULAR park we’ve been to. The hike was so hard, which made reaching the base of Sipapu bridge so much sweeter. The park rangers told us about a secret spot with dinosaur tracks…totally unmarked and hidden…so of course, we went to check that out! Our time in Utah is beyond magical. From swimming at a beautiful pool on the 4th of July, to standing at Forrest Gump Point in Monument Valley, to driving on the breathtaking and terrifying Moki Dugway, we are absolutely enchanted with southern Utah. And then, we headed home. Through New Mexico, Texas, and Kansas. Into Oklahoma – for a crazy heat wave – and then Arkansas, where it was still hot. We ended up in a campground outside of Little Rock, where we bought a blow up pool and used our portable air compressor and the water at the camp site to make ourselves a pool party. Over the big bridge and over the mighty Mississippi and we are east, once more. We chose a campground just on the outskirts of Memphis, the TO Fuller Campground harkened back to the Jim Crow era. While digging a pool, the CCC found the remains of a native American village, so there’s now a historic site adjacent to the park. Tennessee is our fifteenth state! We wanted to see our family in Knoxville, but were afraid of the mountainous drive so we headed down to Huntsville, Alabama. We stayed at a former high school, converted into a campus of craft breweries. When in Huntsville, you go to the US Space and Rocket Center! On day 149, we left Alabama and headed for Georgia. And then we kept driving – to South Carolina – to North Carolina – and then home. Day 149- we parked in the bus in the side yard. Of our own house. TRIP TOTALS: 149 days 101 days offgrid 86 nights were free 15 states 18 Jr Ranger badges 6129 miles on the bus (some ~ 15k miles on the minivan !!!!) CategoriesFOUR MONTHS ON THE ROAD!!
This month is the month of boondocking. Boondocking, or dry camping, refers to being off grid. We are without the usual RV hookups - power, water, and sewer. We boondocked this entire month - offgrid - and paid a grand total of $0 in camp ground fees. Day 91 found us outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Wildlife West Nature Park. This native animal zoo allowed us to camp in their parking lot for two nights. We spend one of those days exploring Albuquerque and the Petroglyphs National Monument. The other day was reserved for the zoo (kids loved it!) and a drive along Route 66. We spent a night at an alpaca farm, then eight days in the Santa Fe National Forest. We explored Santa Fe, Los Alamos, and Bandelier National Monument. We've decided that we like Los Alamos a lot, and Santa Fe not quite so much. On Day 102, we moved west and spent the night at the Bandera Volcano and Ice Cave. The volcano crater was almost 1400 feet wide and roughly 800 feet deep. It was amazing to hike along the lava and basalt paths and see the devastation wrought just a few hundred years ago. The ice cave was incredible! Around the turn of the last century, when logging was huge in the area, there was a railway there and saloon at the base of the volcano. They harvested ice from the ice cave to keep the beer cold! We left New Mexico on Day 103 and arrived in Arizona - the Grand Canyon State and our desired final location.We spent two nights at the Petrified Forest and visited the National Park three times! I loved it! Our next move was to Flagstaff, where we would stay for 14 days. There's just soooo much to do there. We visited Walnut Canyon, Meteor Crater, the south rim of the Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, Williams, Sedona, Sunset Crater, Wupatki National Monument, and Picture Canyon. The highlights were the places we'd never heard of: Slide Rock State Park, where we played in Oak Creek and I skinned my butt-cheeks sliding down the name sake rock waterfall, or Lava River Cave, where we hiked into a 3/4 mile lava tube from 700,000 years ago. Williams was another absolute gem! This tiny little town, called the 'Gateway to the Grand Canyon' was the last town on Route 66 to be bypassed. It's an absolute treasure of Route 66 memorabilia (think old cars and neon), Grand Canyon stylings such as the train that you can take there, and cowboys. We even attended a working cowboy's rodeo, which I shall never forget, and a staged gunfight, which made quite an impression on the kids. Quite frankly, I don't love Flagstaff but I did love our camping spot. It was private and secluded, but only 15 minutes from the city. We could easily get groceries and do laundry and then retreat to the bus. Alone, and with a gorgeous view of the San Francisco peaks, I was delighted when a herd of cows moved into our field. They were less pleased to share with us. We all flirted with the idea of staying, rebels, vagrants, living in a forest forever. Offgrid and out of sight. But the time came for us to leave, and so, we did. We enjoyed an overnight in the Hopi Nation and learned so much. We ended the month in Navajo Nation, at the Four Corners, where we took the opportunity to put a limb in each of the four states that come together in a quadripoint. This geographical phenomena allowed us to be in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah - all at the same time. A great way to end our third month on the road. Stats for this month:
Day 61 found us leaving Louisiana and driving into Texas. We stayed in a small town, surrounded by rice fields. While in Texas, we regaled ourselves with oil pump-jack sightings and stayed ever vigilant for longhorn cattle. We visited Galveston Island and Crystal Beach before moving to the Bastrop area.
Bastrop is really interesting. It's the land of the Lost Pines, and nearby sits the cutest little town of Smithville (setting and filming location of Hope Floats). We spent a day in San Antonio and would love to go back. We were only able to see two of the five remaining missions and I'd love to have the time to see the others. The Riverwalk is absolutely lovely, as well. Austin was a blast! Our highlight is either the visit to the massive pink granite State Capitol Building or the exodus of the Mexican Free-tailed bats that we saw at the Congress Avenue Bridge. Next, we traveled to into the Hill Country area, which is s t u n n i n g. We swam in the Devil's Waterhole, hiked Enchanted Rock and visited the Longhorn Caverns. The magical names of these locations still pale to their actual beauty. We extended our stay, until finally leaving for an overnight at a Lavender Farm. Xanadu ACRES was glorious and the hosts treated up like family. This will forever be a memory that the kids cherish. After making our way through the Panhandle Plains (or the Windmill Forest, as I'd like to call it), we arrived in New Mexico. The landscape was instantaneously different. P called it when she said: "it looks like we're at the beach but there's no ocean". This wonderful observation was totally on point; we were awash in sand dunes with some small vegetation but no trees whatsoever. I LOVE NEW MEXICO! Roswell and Bottomless Lakes were amazing. Carlsbad Caverns was awe inspiring. At Fort Sumner, we immersed ourselves in the legend of Billy the Kid and the terrible events of the Bosque Redondo. This trip was spurred in part by loss, and sadly, being on the road hasn't protected us from more. We lost both friends and family on the East Coast while we were in New Mexico. It hurts to not be there. Monthly Stats:
Stephanie wrote an article for an online travel magazine. You can read it here (opens in new window).
I'm sitting in my bed, inside my vintage, self-converted bus. It's been 66 days since we packed up the kids and the pets, and drove away from our house. We left North Carolina on March 1. Today, I'm in a National Forest in Texas and reflecting on our journey. Here are some stats:
Days 1-60:
It's interesting to see that we camped for free 49% of the time. I think this is awesome, both because we are newbies at this, and because I've heard that free camping is harder on the east coast! So YAY! Half our nights were free! It's also interesting to see that nights paid doesn't equal nights hooked up. That's because, sometimes, we had to pay to camp in a location, even if we didn't use electricity. Two locations come to mind - one in SC and one in LA - and both were AMAZING! I would totally pay to be there again! I can't imagine not having solar panels. They are a GAME CHANGER! Really! We were off grid for 40 out of the 60 days, a whopping 66% of the time. Having a solar setup has opened up so many opportunities for us. I highly, highly, recommend solar. It's magical! Let's discuss the camping fees. $669 in two months works out to be about $335 a month. This would be a pretty awesome price for rent and utilities! But really, I don't think that's the whole story. To truly understand what it costs to live this kind of a lifestyle, we would definitely need to factor in the gas. Our bus gets, like, 5 miles to the gallon. So while I did spend a ton at the pump when I was commuting to work everyday, I suspect that we may be paying more now to move this diesel monster from point to point. But that's a post for another day :) We started this adventure January 25th 2018 with the purchase of DasBus. Now one year later we are ready to begin the real adventure. I gutted the bus starting in February 2018 and finished total build in August. |
stancil 6Family of 6 traveling the country full time. Archives
November 2019
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